Snow blower



April 1963 G. GUILLEMETTE 3,085,832-

SNOW BLOWER Filed March 14, 1962 IN VEN TOR Ma i]? l3 /8 By E/JW Agent 3,085,832 Patented Apr. 16, 1963 3,085,832 SNOW BLOWER Gerard Guiilemette, Black Lake, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Raoul Carrier, Black Lake, Quebec, Canada Filed Mar. 14, 1952, Ser. No. 179,732 Claims. (Cl. 302-37) The present invention relates to a snow blower of the type comprising a snow collecting casing which may be provided or not with a transverse rotary helical screw for moving the snow transversely of the casing, the snow being fed to a blower which ejects the snow through a chute, the casing being adapted to be secured to the front or back of a motor vehicle, such as tractors, trucks and the like, power means being further provided for actuating the blower and screw; the power means may be a power take off of the motor vehicle itself or a separate engine.

The present invention relates more particularly to the construction of the blower itself and has for its general object the provision of such a blower of greatly increased efficiency with respect to conventional blowers, whereby at equal power capacity, a snow remover provided with the blower in accordance with the invention will throw the snow at a much greater distance and will have a much greater snow output than snow removers provided with conventional blowers.

-A more specific object of the present invention resides in the provision of a blower for snow removers in which the angle of the blades of the blower rotor and the angle of the ejection tube for the snow are selected in such a manner as to eliminate or considerably decrease the friction of the snow in the ejection tube and to prevent accumulation of wet snow in said tube.

Another object of the present invention consists in the provision of means providing a three point attachment of the snow remover casing to a tractor.

The foregoing and other important objects of the present invention will become more apparent during the following disclosure and by referring to the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a snow remover in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view;

FIGURE 3 is a back elevation;

FIGURE 4 is a back elevation of the casing and showing the blower part in section; and

FIGURE 5 is a cross-section of one of the blades of the blower rotor.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings in which like reference characters indicate like elements throughout, the snow remover in accordance with the invention comprises a casing 1 consisting of two lateral wings 2 which are forwardly inclined and provided at their outer ends with forwardly directed flanges 3 paral lel to the longitudinal axis of the snow remover.

A cylindrical housing 4 for the blower is mounted at the back of the central portion of wings 2 and is in communication with casing 1 by means of a central circular opening 5. Housing 4 is provided with a circular bottom 6 closing the back of said housing. A snow ejection tube 7 having parallel walls 8 and 8' is secured to and is in communication with housing 4, but is disposed at such an angle that its Wall 8 is not tangential to the cylindrical wall of housing 4 at the junction of said walls, as will be explained hereinafter.

Housing 4 can be rigidly secured to the wings 2 of casing 1 or can be rotatably mounted in order to vary the inclination of the ejection tube in a vertical plane as in conventional constructions. In the drawings, casing 4 is rigidly secured to the wings 2.

Ejection tube 7 may enter an orientable chute for throwing the snow in any desired direction or tube 7 can be provided with a pivoted cap to throw the snow to one side or the other of the roadway. The chute or cap are not shown in the drawings and do not form part of the present invention.

A shaft 9 is coaXi-ally mounted within housing 4 and extends through the latter being supported in a bearing 10 secured to the back wall 6 of the housing 4 and a bearing 11 located at the front of housing 4 and supported by arms 12 rigidly secured to Wings 2 of casing 1. The front end portion of shaft 9 projects within the space delimited by the wings 2 and carries radial blades 13 which are slightly inclined to the axis of shaft 13, as the blades of a screw, and which serve to disintegrate blocks of snow or ice before being fed to the blower.

The blower further comprises a rotor or fan constituted by vanes 14 which are rigidly secured to shaft 9 and disposed within housing 4. As shown in section in FIG- URE 5, vanes 14 are each constituted by a flat central part 15 and marginal portions 16 which are forwardly inclined with respect to the direction of rotation. The vanes 14 have a width slightly smaller than the width of housing 4 and a length such that their outer edges are close to the cylindrical wall of housing 4. The rear longitudinal edges 16 of the vanes are only slightly spaced from back wall 6 of housing 4.

Vanes 14 are not radial with respect to shaft 9 but are secured in a tangential manner to said shaft, as clearly shown in FIGURE 4, and their radially inner end 17 is secured to the next vane in order to form a rigid assembly with shaft 9. In this manner, the vanes subtend an angle of about 6 with a line joining the axis of shaft 9 with the outer end 18 of the vane-s. In the same manner, the ejection tube 7 is not tangent to casing 4 but is inclined to an angle of about 6 in the direction contrary to the direction of rotation of the rotor indicated by arrow 19. The inclination of vanes 14 and also the corresponding inclination of ejection tube 7 constitutes the essential characteristic of the present invention. It should be noted that these two inclinations are substantially equal whereby when vane 14 reaches the junction of the upstream longitudinal wall 8 of tube 7 with the cylindrical wall of housing 4, said vane is in a plane perpendicular to the axis of tube '7.

The inclination of the vanes and of tube 7 can be further increased to attain a maximum of 14 and can also be decreased, but the preferred value is between 6 and 7.

During trial runs carried out with a snow remover built in accordance with the invention and mounted at the back of a tractor having a power take off connected to shaft 9, the tractor, having an engine of twenty-eight horsepower, it has been found that hard and dry snow can be thrown to a distance of to feet; if the snow is wet, the latter can then be thrown at 100 feet and more. Comparative trials have been carried out with a snow thrower of the rotary type and of conventional construction and mounted on the same tractor with the same engine, and it was found that the snow could only be thrown at a distance of 20 to' 30 feet. Moreover, it has been found that the snow remover of the present invention had three times the snow output as the snow remover of conventional construction, and having a rotary blower, as indicated hereinabove.

The snow blower in accordance with the invention which was tested as above has a cylindrical housing 4 of two feet three inches diameter with a shaft 9 of one and fifteen-sixteenth inch of diameter and an ejection tube 7 inclined at about 32 with respect to the vertical. The fan in the blower rotates at 720 r.p.m., but this rotation can vary between 700 and 1,000 rpm. The increased elficiency of the blower of the snow remover of the invention is explained by the fact that there is less friction between the snow and the ejection tube 7 than in snow throwers in which the ejection tube is tangent to the cylindrical wall of the blower housing.

Due to the centrifugal force, the snow collected at the front of the vanes, instead of being thrown along the upstream Wall 8 of ejection tube 7, moves more to the center of tube 7 whereby snow friction is considerably diminished along wall 8. On the other hand, it is necessary to incline the vanes 14 to a corresponding degree in order that each vane will be perpendicular to the axis of the ejection tube 7 when it reaches the junction of wall 8 with cylindrical wall of housing 4 in order that the snow may be thrown along the axis of the tube. This will not be the case if the vane was radial with respect to the shaft, because in such a case the snow would be thrown against downstream Wall 8 of the ejection tube which would result in considerable friction and slowing down of the ejected snow.

Preferably, there are three vanes 14, but the number of vanes can be increased or decreased.

Another characteristic of the snow blower in accordance with the present invention resides in the means for mounting the snow blower implement at the back of a tractor. Arms 20 with lateral pins, and vertical arms 21 are secured to back wall 6 and serves to attach the snow thrower to the hydraulically actuated hoisting and attaching means commonly found at the back of farm tractors; thus the snow thrower can be raised and lowered by means of the hydraulic system of the tractor. The shaft 9 of the snow blower is directly coupled to the power take off of the tractor which is normally found at the back of the latter. In this case, the tractor will obviously have to move rearwardly for collecting the snow.

Despite the fact that the device of the present invention is more particularly adapted for removing and throwing snow it can also be used for throwing and blowing other materials, such as grain, straw, and other granular material.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention has been illustrated and described, it is understood that various modifications may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A blower for snow and other granular material comprising a cylindrical housing having a bottom wall and opened at its front end for receiving material to be ejected, a shaft rotatably mounted Within said housing and coaxial therewith, angularly spaced vanes rigidly secured tangentially to said shaft at their radially inner end, the outer ends of said vanes being slightly spaced from the cylindrical wall of said housing, and subtending an angle varying between four and fourteen degrees with a line joining the external end of said vane to the axis of said shaft, and an ejection tube secured to and in communication with the cylindrical wall of said housing, said tube having an upstream Wall with respect to the direction of rotation of said vanes which is inclined in a direction contrary to said direction of rotation at an angle defined by said upstream wall and a line tangential to the junction of said upstream wall with said cylindrical wall, said last named angle being equal to the angle subtended by said vanes as defined hereinabove, whereby each vane upon reaching a position at the junction of said upstream wall with said cylindrical wall of said housing is in a plane substantially perpendicular to said upstream Wall of said tube.

2. A blower as claimed in claim 1, wherein said vanes have longitudinal edge portions which are forwardly inclined with respect to the direction of rotation of said vanes.

3. A blower as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radially inner end of each vane is rigidly secured to the next vane in order to form a rigid assembly.

4. A blower as claimed in claim 1, wherein said shaft extends forwardly from the opened end of said cylindrical housing, and further including radial blades rigidly secured to said shaft and serving to disintegrate blocks of snow or the like.

5. A blower as claimed in claim 1, wherein the subtended angle of said vanes and of said upstream wall of said tube is between 6 and 7.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 499,673 Green June 13, 1893 997,127 Hanrahan et a1. July 4, 1911 1,149,904 Foster Aug. 10, 1915 2,681,516 Bourne June 22, 1954 3,015,172 Parnas Jan. 2, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 166,388 Sweden Mar. 3, 1959 629,101 Canada Oct. 17, 1961 1,021,940 Germany Jan. 2, 1958 

1. A BLOWER FOR SNOW AND OTHER GRANULAR MATERIAL COMPRISING A CYLINDRICAL HOUSING HAVING A BOTTOM WALL AND OPENED AT ITS FRONT END FOR RECEIVING MATERIAL TO BE EJECTED, A SHAFT ROTATABLY MOUNTED WITHIN SAID HOUSING AND COAXIAL THEREWITH, ANGULARLY SPACED VANES RIGIDLY SECURED TANGENTIALLY TO SAID SHAFT AT THEIR RADIALLY INNER END, THE OUTER ENDS OF SAID VANES BEING SLIGHTLY SPACED FROM THE CYLINDRICAL WALL OF SAID HOUSING, AND SUBTENDING AN ANGLE VARYING BETWEEN FOUR AND FOURTEEN DEGREES WITH A LINE JOINING THE EXTERNAL END OF SAID VANE TO THE AXIS OF SAID SHAFT, AND AN EJECTION TUBE SECURED TO AND IN COMMUNICATION WITH THE CYLINDRICAL WALL OF SAID HOUSING, SAID TUBE HAVING AN UPSTREAM WALL WITH RESPECT TO THE DIRECTION OF ROTATION OF SAID VANES WHICH IS INCLINED IN A DIRECTION CONTRARY TO SAID DIRECTION OF ROTATION AT AN ANGLE DEFINED BY SAID UPSTREAM WALL AND A LINE TANGENTIAL TO THE JUNCTION OF SAID UPSTREAM WALL WITH SAID CYLINDRICAL WALL, SAID LAST NAMED ANGLE BEING EQUAL TO THE ANGLE SUBTENDED BY SAID VANES AS DEFINED HEREINABOVE, WHEREBY EACH VANE UPON REACHING A POSITION AT THE JUNCTION OF SAID UPSTREAM WALL WITH SAID CYLINDRICAL WALL OF SAID HOUSING IS IN A PLANE SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO SAID UPSTREAM WALL OF SAID TUBE. 